Category: Totally Vegan Bake off

Toronto’s Fifth Annual Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake Off

, , , , , ,

This weekend was the “Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake Off” and I think it was probably the best one yet.  Really organized, great treats, and an accessible indoor venue. I’ve been to three of the bake off’s (For a trip down memory lane: 3rd Annual Vegan Bake Off, 4th Annual Vegan Bake Off) and while I’ll never forget my first, I can see all the improvements from feedback from previous years. I know the 6th annual bake off will be even better and I can’t wait. This year’s Bake Off happened at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Center (though if you lived here, you’d probably just call it the JCC) 750 Spadina Ave, Toronto and at 2 pm things really got started. Over 47 amateur, professional, and professional amateur vegan bakers or bakeries put in hours and hours into preparing mini versions of their specialties. I had a slightly different experience from the previous years, since as per my 101 in 1001 days food goals, I entered the Vegan Bake Off this year. So in addition to coming to the bake off to eat several plates of delicious mini vegan treats, I also got to feel the intense bake off pressure, and then later taste that sharp flavour of defeat (not really, but I’ll admit it, kind of.) It was actually a lot of fun making 100 cannoli, in a zen kind of mindless repetitive task kind of way, but I don’t think I’ll ever do something like that again. At least not…

Read more

4th Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off – I was there, were you?

, , , , ,

  I’ve been waiting for this day since the last totally fabulous vegan bake-off in October of 2010, the 4th Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off. This time, with my delightful co-pilot, JC. I was at a volunteer orientation for Social Media Week Toronto at the Entrinsic Office immediately before the bake-off event was to start, so I got there much later than I wanted to and we saw this: Crazy lines are the price of success I guess! On the plus side, my concerns of not being able to find the place were unfounded. There is nothing like walking down Bathurst from the TTC station and seeing a huge line, and just knowing that it was because of the Vegan bake-off. Once we got in, there were several categories, but many of them were already sold out (like the Professionally Crafted Vegan Classics (no surprise there!), Cupcakes/tarts/pastries, and cookies) but we did get two plates of Gluten-free treats – regular and chocolate based, the decadent raw sweets, and vegan bars. We started with the plate of general gluten free sweets. First thing I noticed – I didn’t notice a missing gluten flavour in any of them. You’ve come a long way gluten free baby, keep up the good flavours. Gluten-Free Sweets 30. Brown Bag Donuts 31. Half-Moon Spectaculars! 32. Morning Glory… That is my story…. 33. Strawberry Coconut Tart 34. Too Die for Coconut-y Carob Banana Balls I think the Half Moon Spectaculars were easily my favourites, and then looking closer, I…

Read more